Buddhism, Women, and Their Role

Throughout Buddhist history, the role of women has been far from equal.  The only way to steer clear of finding misogyny in Buddhism has been to select your readings carefully.  What remains is that Buddhism, regardless of which society, has done nothing to help the status of women, although nunneries have often been a safe haven.

Indeed, when one makes a list of the situation, the majority of it points to this: throuout Buddhism, women are dealt with and regarded as inferior to men.  Yet 1000’s of smart, well-educated women study Buddhism as non-clergy or nuns|Regardless of that clear inequality, thousands of bright and schooled women study Buddhism as both laywmen and as nuns.  We’re going to examine the historical and present-day place of women in Buddhism.

From the Beginning...

It really is important to remember that the Buddha was born into a society which had been very misogynistic, as well as being very caste-oriented.  So, Buddha shocked the Buddhist community to make it known that reaching nirvana is possible for any person - man or woman.  The issue has been, nobody is able to say exactly what it is the Buddha actually once said and didn’t say.   As with the Gospels, the sutras were written well after Buddha died (some 200 years) and they were written by the monks, who were, of course, all men.  As we look back to sixth century India, this tidbit becomes much more important to recall.

Siddhartha Gautama’s mother passed when Siddhartha had been a mere infant.  He was raised by his maternal aunt, Mahapajapati, who adopted him after her sister died..

Mahapajapati, feeling driven over the years by a similar dissatisfaction which had driven multitudes of men before her, strongly desired to ask to be allowed into the sanghi, but knew of the prejudice against women becoming a member.  Still, as time went on, she knew that she couldn’t keep herself from requesting admittance.  After shedding her material possessions, she spent her time and energy participating in compassionate acts.  She was then ready to move forward.

As Jesus prior to her (under different circumstances), Mahapajapati was refused three times when she requested Buddha for to be allowed into into the sangha in Kapilavatthu.  She left him to his thoughts, but cut off her hair then put on a saffron robe.  When Buddha left on his long trip to Vesali, he was soon joined by Mahapajapati, along with 500 women of noble-birth, all with shaved heads and wearing robes.

This time as she approached the Buddha, she saw that he was meditating, and she did not want to disturb him|After their arrival, Mahapajapati hesitated to interrupt Buddha from his meditations.  Ananda noticed their attire and inquired as to the reason.  Mahapajapati explained that the women longed to be admitted into the sangha, but that the Buddha had already denied her three times.  Ananda, seeing that her motive was pure, offered to present her case to the Buddha for her.  At Ananda’s request, Buddha, seemingly grudgingly, agreed that women be permitted to join the sangha, but only if the women agreed to 8 strict rules, which they must adhere to.

1.  A nun, even one who has been ordained for 100 years, must respectfully bow to every monk, even if he has only been ordained for only a day.

2.  Before a young woman can apply for complete ordination no earlier than age 18, she must first finish the 2 year long basic program on the precepts.

3. Nuns may never fault monks for any reason, genuine or imagined, but monks may certainly criticize nuns for any true reason (although not for unsubstantiated ones).

4. Nuns may never accept food, beds, seats, or lodging before any monk present.

5. Any nun who breaks a single one of the rules, must do penance for fifteen days under the scrutiny of the nuns and must request restitution from both the nun as well as the monk community.

6. Every fifteen days, the nuns need to approach the group of monks and request their instruction.

7. It is never proper for nuns to enter upon a rain retreat in a place in which you find no monks.

8. Once the rain retreat has been completed, the nuns must ask for the forgiveness ceremony from both groups and confess to any rules they have not followed, however minor.

After that, Buddha once said remorsefully to Ananda, “If women hadn’t been admitted into the monastery, the sangha would have remained intact for 1000 yrs.  But now that they've been admitted, the order will last only five hundred yrs.”. Misogynists say that Buddha said that because he knew of the inborn evil of women; other people are less harsh and have suggested that with both genders allowed, both the men and the women might give in to their lust.

As time went on, nuns and monks both got much more lengthy lists of precepts to adhere to, but depending on which tradition, nuns can have as many as 100 more than the monks.

Like with all religions, there is a fair amount of discrepancy about how it all unfolded.  Another version bandied about has been that the nuns weren't supposed to go travelling alone was because a nun had been raped.  If that were the case, then the precept was added in for protection.

Always, it is obvious many of the precepts reflect on the gender inequalities of the time.  In India, during of the fifth century, it had been assumed that women were inferior to men.  Having no chance to get any education, as well as limited freedom, women of all castes had been considered to be on the same level with the lowest of the castes, the Sudra. Again, we must point out that Buddha’s decision to allow women as nuns of the sangha was revolutionary, and controversial.

While the Buddha did hold progressive views regarding the role of women within the sangha, contemporary members of the sangha disagreed.  Since the other monks had been born under the same social rules as Buddha, a lot of the others didn't comprehend the reason why he appeared to be so relatively open-minded about them.

Ananada, during the initial Buddhist council, was ordered to admit his wrong-doings, which he steadfastly denied having done.  Even after they were listed, he disagreed with their assessment.   One of them brought up, was his influence in the Buddha’s deciding to allow women to be part of the sangha; another was that Ananda had allowed women to pay homage over Buddha’s remains before the men were allowed, and a 3rd had been that he allowed the womens’ teardrops to fall on the Buddha’s body.  While always maintaining his innocence, Ananda agreed to confess, but only because he was told he had to.

Tricia Stirling has created this class for the Universal Life Church Seminary. This is an excerpt of one lesson (of thirty) from the Master of Buddhist Studies Course offered through the Universal Life Church Seminary. We have a whole host of courses available and each one entitles you to an earned degree.